For It All Must End
by Courtney-Christina
Summary: With the war still waging, Hermione is forced to inhabit a safe house along with her former Potions Master. Things always change and yet all must come to an end.
1. Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for Aideen. The rest belongs to JKR and her wonderful mind.

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A piercing cry in the dead of night made the inhabitants of 47 Rousseau Boulevard tumble about in their beds. Surely the neighbors would quiet whatever was making the noise. It had been too long a day for the man or woman upstairs to want to trudge downstairs and see what was going on. Upon the sleepy realization that the cries were getting no quieter and that the closest neighbors were an acre away, the woman of the house got out of her bed and wrapped herself in a terry dressing gown before drawing her wand and walking cautiously downstairs. This action, of course, made the man realize he must also get up and he did so swiftly.

Wand gripped firmly in her hand, Hermione Granger walked carefully through the hallway and down the stairs. She did not dare illuminate the hallway and give away her location. Severus Snape, who was still too tired to quite grasp the situation, flicked the lights on in the house with a swish of his wand. Hermione growled at him disapprovingly from the bottom of the stairs. Just outside the front door was the source of the wailing. She looked through the peak hole and saw nothing. She and Severus undid the various wards that kept them guarded and opened the door, wands drawn, to find an infant in a carrying basket on their stoop, letter attached.

She picked up the letter and read it, tears silently dripping onto the paper as she progressed through it. Severus was looking at the child questioningly and then to Hermione when she picked up the basket and brought the child into what had become their home. Severus redid his portion of the wards and waited for Hermione to speak. She handed him the letter and picked up the strawberry blonde headed child. Snape looked from the letter to the child in Hermione's arms and back to the letter. The child had ceased it's wailing when Hermione cradled it against her, rubbing it's back in slow circular motions. The child couldn't have been more than a day old.

"Let us go do up a nursery then, sir." Hermione said, carrying the child upstairs and levitating the carrying basket to follow her. She proceeded to the small room that separated hers from his, with doors on either side of it. At one point, it had been home to linens and unused objects but when the building was changed into a safe house, the objects were placed into a small closet near the bathroom and this room was emptied for future use. There were various port keys to the wall closest the doors, to take them somewhere else if the need be. He transfigured a shelf and placed the port keys atop while they both worked to make the room pleasant for the child. They also managed to conjure some clothing and formula.

"That is the best we can hope for tonight, Miss Granger. Being stuck here does not quite help us to provide for this child." Severus said somewhat dejectedly. They had both been placed here, in this unplottable house, while the second war waged on without them. Severus had been beyond found out and was no good to either side. He couldn't be of any aid to the Order because of the large number of people hunting him. Hermione had taken out quite a few high ranking Death Eaters in the past four years since her graduation. This had been the hardest thing for her, harder than her internship as a Healer and watching herself and her fellow Healers unable to aid certain friends of hers that had been too greatly wounded. She saw too much death in her year-long internship to want to be a Healer. She had been carried by Fawkes right out of her home after being very badly hexed by a Death Eater. Her parents were dead and she had nearly been killed trying to save them. She had seen way too much death in her life. Now, she was stuck with her former Potions Master in a stuffy old Victorian home, and with a baby to top it all off.

Hermione sighed and said, "You can head back to bed, sir. I wish to stay up with Aideen. Considering . . ." she could not bring herself to finish and he didn't really need her to. He nodded and exited the room into his own, leaving the door half open. They new they were both left in charge of this child as the girl's parents were murdered. They had been living together for somewhere around a month and a half when this infant had arrived at their door step.

Hermione sat shakily into a rocking chair they had transfigured from a loose nail and rocked the child, staring into her vibrant eyes. The silent tears continued to leak from her as she watched the child grow less fearful of it's new surroundings. Ginevra Weasley, Hermione thought to herself, had she ever even seen her daughter? Was she at least given the chance before they killed her? Hermione choked up a bit in disgust, knowing they full well hadn't given her a chance at anything. Her first child was her last child, same for Neville. Neville and Ginny had found solace in each other during Ginny's first year as a graduate.

The war was nearly in full swing by the time they had married. Shortly thereafter George and Fred had taken out five Death Eaters that had ambushed them only to be killed by five more, sharing the same fate as their uncles Gideon and Fabian. Ginny barely spoke to anybody but Neville after that, Hermione was on a more covert front of the war anyways and never really saw her much after the funeral. She hadn't even known Ginny was pregnant. She couldn't understand why Dumbledore had given her charge of the child, even in accordance with Ginny's wishes, if there were still direct family members. If, how could she have thought if? Of course the Weasleys were still alive and kicking. How could they not be? Hermione gently set the child into it's bassinet and charmed it to slowly rock.

She sat in the rocking chair for the rest of the night contemplating how closed off she was from the rest of the world and how she didn't even know the fate of her friends. Obviously, if Harry had died she would have known instantly because the war would've taken a very large turn for the worse. Charlie and Bill and the others weren't of as much importance as Harry was, seeing as how he was prophetic and all. They were all still very dear to Hermione and she would be just as impacted if any of them had passed on. She'd seen enough death in this war to age her far beyond her years. She regretted ever saying she wanted to be able to see thestrals. The first attack of the war had been at Hogwarts, directly following the graduation ceremony when everybody was off guard and relaxed, given the times. She'd never expected it and neither had anybody else, but they all fought bravely as the battle waged on for days. Although that battle was long since over, the war still lasting to this day.

She fell asleep in the rocking chair, thinking and thinking of things she could not know. She was always thinking nowadays, she felt somewhat lonely being stuck with Snape. He was not a horrible conversationalist but she was guilty for having treated him so bad for years and vice versa, surprisingly. They talked at mealtimes but otherwise stayed in their rooms reading and thinking. Perhaps this child, the child that looked so much like her beloved and now dead parents, would be the key to surviving this war for Hermione and perhaps for Severus Snape, as well.


	2. Chapter Two

Disclaimer is the same as before with the addition of the song belonging to Kasey Chambers.

Dragonero- Thanks for your review! Because you were my very first review, I dedicate this chapter to you.

Flames, if for some reason I get any, will be used to toast marshmallows. I do absolutely adore reviews, feel free to leave me plenty of those!

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Hermione was dreaming one of those dreams again. She was in the burrow, just before things had gotten too bad. Ginny was singing the song she always did in the dream and dancing about with Hermione as they prepared for the wedding. She was so alive, so energetic. Her happiness nearly got through to Hermione, who had been a bit depressed since discovering that Healers could only do so much and that they couldn't save half the people that were brought back to them at the camps. It was just the beginning, Hermione knew, and it was bad enough for her to actually give up on being a Healer professionally. She wasn't even sure that there were going to be any professions or any world left when this was all over with, she was honestly unsure there'd be future between quitting at something for the first time in her life and this seemingly ceaseless war. She had given up on those that gave up on people and settled for a certification in rudimentary Healing.

Ginny knew Hermione was in a rut, but she kept singing and dancing with her. She knew that her friend would be happy someday, hopefully soon, and that it was no good to let her be so sullen. Hermione made a small smile and Ginny cracked a grin, there was hope yet. They pranced about the room and ended up having a pillow fight which resulted in Hermione having to rework Ginny's hair into it's beautiful wedding up-do. She helped Ginny into her wedding robes and she slipped on her own light blue dress robes and they proceeded to the de-gnomed garden for the ceremony. If it weren't for all the fancy clothes, Hermione would have figured this to be a memory of any time before the wedding. On the way down the winding staircase, Ginny turned to Hermione with her face flushed.

"Hermione," Ginny said quietly, as though not to be overheard, "If I ever have a daughter. I want her to be just like you." Hermione smiled and was about to say something but Ginny continued on. "I know that you'll think me ridiculous, but. . . if I ever do have that baby that I want so badly, and something -you know- happens," Ginny stopped speaking suddenly and searched for something within her friend's eyes. Finding whatever she had been looking for, she continued on again, "Well, I just wanted to know if you would take care of my babies. You're like my sister -and we did that whole muggle blood sister thing- and you're the only person I can ever see raising my babies along with me besides Neville or Mum. But, well, I just figured that if something were to happen to me that Mum wouldn't just sit around and take it she'd go berserk and do something stupid. Well, even if she is around I want it to be you- as long as it's okay with you."

"Gin, don't you think you're being a little bit pessimistic right before your wedding?" Hermione said to her friend. She took Ginny's hand in her own and said, "I swear on my own heart, Ginevra Molly Weasley, that if you and fate shall have it. . . I will look after your children as if they were my own. I am expecting the same of you, if ever I get married. Now shush yourself and let's get you married!"

Usually she stayed in this dream until the end of the ceremony when two young Death Eaters tried to crash the party and became new prisoners of war instead of succeeding in their goal. Hermione woke up half way through the ceremony, this time around, because Aideen was turning about her bassinet and wailing yet again. Hermione raised herself at once from the rocking chair to pick up the child. She rubbed her back to soothe her and it was not working. She used her wand to fix some formula to a bottle and checked the temperature while feeding the fussy child. She was a quite a hungry child at that.

Hermione had never expected that her best friend would be murdered. The letter, in addition to the child in her arms, made it all to real for her. How could Ginny and Neville have been murdered? How could such a young child be stripped from her mother? As Aideen finished the bottle and Hermione burped her, she tried to rock the child once more. Completely forgetting that the door was half open into the other room, Hermione started singing the song that she had long since pegged as Ginny's song.

"Well I never lived through the great depression

sometimes I feel as though I did

And I don't have answers for every single question

But that's okay 'cos I'm just a kid.

Well I've seen pictures of my mother

When she looked exactly like me

And I've seen all my friends running for cover

Running from something they can't see.

And it's not easy to get handle on my life

but I have tried it time and time again

But I still cry just like a baby

And I answer back to feel a little free

And I still fly even though I'm gonna fall

But I'm too far to let it get to me."

Hermione held the new little life and realized it was the first new life she had seen since the start of the war. She swayed around with Aideen for a little while. The baby's small hand closed around one of Hermione's fingers. With a neck too young to support her head, she leaned on Hermione, letting herself be cradled, completely trusting her. Something of the words she sang were soothing. They soothed Hermione, Aideen, and Severus who was not sleeping but in the other room with the letter in his hands once more. Hermione returned to the rocker and charmed it to rock slowly as she drifted off to sleep with Aideen, one of the most peaceful infants ever, in her arms.

Snape could not return to sleep after this child had been given to them. The note read that Hermione's promise had need of fulfillment and that Poppy Pomfrey, Molly Weasley, Neville Longbottom and his wife Ginny had been murdered. Dumbledore, who had written the note, understood that Hermione was to take the child and that he hoped that Severus would help her in caring for the child so long as they remain in the house together. He had now problem with helping Hermione with anything, she was actually very much like him in certain ways and he was growing quite fond of her as a person from their conversations. She was no longer an annoying student, nor was he a strict professor and it seemed to suit them both just fine. It had been hard to get along at first but they'd learned to live with each other in the past month and a half. He had thought as recently as noon that day that if they were still in school, he would have awarded her five points for making such a point in a discussion over the benefits of using gillyweed in sleeping potions. She was quite bright, and he also thought she should have to be exposed to such a git as himself or this ghastly war. He turned back to the items in his hands.

Ginny was killed right after delivering her child, the Death Eaters had stormed their camp. Neville, Molly, and Poppy protected the child with all they had to give and the child was hidden from the detection of any Death Eaters. Molly, as Ginny had predicted years prior, had gone berserk when her baby girl was murdered right before her. The face she had thought was relief from having finally pushed her last push, was really the face of sudden death. So defenseless, having not even seen her own baby girl, Ginny Longbottom was murdered. Molly had been furious and killed six of the attacking Death Eaters before she was finally subdued and murdered herself. Neville and Poppy defended the tent that housed the now-dead Ginny and their undetectable child.

Of course, the note hadn't been in this much detail but there had been a sort of spun-glass ball, like those that housed prophecies, containing the scene that had caused Hermione's promise to become rather pertinent. He had just watched it, soundlessly, through the small sphere, scared that breaking it like a prophecy would make the scene play out life sized. Hermione would see it when the time came. He did not feel that she needed to be subjected to the gruesome murders of four people she loved. Tonight was especially not the night for such things to be seen. She was still dealing with the news of their deaths. Perhaps, Dumbledore had made a mistake in including the small orb. But Severus knew that a Wizard's pact required transference of the situation that brought the promise into fruition, but this was simply horrible. He placed the orb in the drawer of his bedside table with the letter. These would not be seen for a while if he had anything to say about it.

He stood inside the doorframe and watched Hermione lull the infant to sleep. When she passed on to sleep herself, Severus placed the child in the bassinet and levitated Hermione into her own bed. She was too young for all this hate and murder, too young to be faced with a war. He hated that he had been subjected to this at her age and had chosen the wrong side. Only after he had learned of the plans to murder Lily Evans and her child did he ever start to wonder what he was doing with the Dark Lord. The cause that had once seemed righteous and full of support then seemed like a murderous rampage. He could only hope that some of the Death Eaters saw that now, knowing that another baby's life had been ruined, knowing that they had killed a mother before she had seen her child and killed her own mother, husband, and midwife. Hopefully, if Draco Malfoy were among them, he would come to his senses. This was no way to live. This war should not be happening.

Severus just continued to stormily think even as he pulled Hermione's covers over her and went to sit in the still rocking chair, to watch over Aideen. It was a miracle that the silencing and invisibility charms had held even after her protectors had died. This child was a miracle. To survive such a thing. . . and this war. . . it wasn't just the Dark Lord. Some of his followers were just as evil as he and would continue on even if he himself was killed. Perhaps he was just the face painted onto an evil campaign. Sure he was evil, sure he wanted all this destruction just as much as his followers did- but were he not the leader, somebody else would rise to the occasion. There was no need for such senseless hate. What the world needed was more unconditional love, such that people could love each other as much as they had shown they loved Aideen. . . without having to die. There should be no violence, no murder, no war. Severus continued to berate his own mind and stew over the night's events. He wondered, since this was the first news they had received since their arrival, how many of the others had fallen. He also wondered what a large group of Death Eaters was doing storming a Healer Camp in the dead of night.


End file.
